摘要：



1953年Watson & Crick 对于DNA双螺旋结构模型的提出及对其遗传机理的解释，标志着现代分子生物学的诞生。其后短短50年的时间里，分子生物学在各个学科之间广泛渗透，相互促进，不断深入和发展。在以研究人类的起源和进化为首要任务的人类学领域，由于现代分子生物学理论和方法的应用，诞生了分子人类学这一全新的结合型分支学科，为人类学的发展提供了科学可信的研究方法和具发展前景的研究方向。系统地介绍了分子人类学的发展历史、研究方法及原理；另外，结合分子人类学在古人类学研究中的应用，讨论了关于现代人起源的“非洲起源说”和“多地区连续演化说”。Abstract: Since Watson & Crick put forward the double-helix model of DNA structure and hereditary mechanism in 1953, it is generally accepted that this event marks the birth of modern molecular biology. This new field of biology has experienced a flourishing development in the past 50 years. On one hand, the development of molecular biology has been deeply influencing many relative fields; on the other hand, its own proceeding pace has been accelerated by the reaction from the other fields. Anthropology is one of the fields most deeply impacted by the theory and method of molecular biology. Most importantly, molecular anthropology was born as a result of combination of molecular biology, anthropology as well as paleoanthropology. This new branch provides reliable method and vital direction for paleoanthropology. This paper systematically reviews the history, principle and method of molecular anthropology. Two hypotheses on the origin of modern human, which include “out-of-African theory” and “theory of multiregional evolution” are also discussed for the purpose of showing how molecular anthropology is applied in paleoanthropology.